Category Archives: Hearing loss

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Otter creates voice notes that combine audio, transcription and speaker identification for free on a desktop/laptop computer when online and with mobile and tablet apps.

Otter is a real time speech recognition service, that can recognise different speakers in recorded sessions, allow you to download the output in text and audio as well as SRT. It is really quite accurate even when using a desktop microphone with clear English speakers in a small room. We have found it useful for note taking and transcribing interviews but have not tested it in a lecture theatre. The free online version of Otter offers 600 minutes of transcription per month with unlimited cloud storage and synchronisation across devices. Visit the App Store or Google Play for more features and reviews.

The Premium version provides more features, such as names of speakers when they register and are recognised by recording a little bit of speech and 6,000 minutes of transcription per month. PC Mag provided a review in June 2018 and mentioned that with the free plan, users get 600 minutes of transcriptions per month.

This is an app that works on the iPhone or Android and could be a life saver or just a better reminder than the alarms you set up. If you have a hearing impairment or need an alert this app will turn your smart phone into a device that provides visual signals, vibration and/or flashing light when well known sounds are heard via the microphone or an alarm, door bell or other sounds around the house and local surroundings. It can help when on field trips or in a lab / lecture theatre etc when the fire alarm goes off.

According to Braci Smartear it is a ‘sound recognition platform’ with a “Wide range of detectable sounds – The application can pick up and notify you to many different types of sounds which revolve around your safety, security and comfort. These sounds can be found as:
a- Pre-installed within the application (Smoke alarms, and Carbon monoxide alarms)
b- Customizable to your specific sounds ( Doorbells, alarms, intercoms, and much more)
c- Compatible alert products such as Bellman and Geemarc products.”

Google Drive is an online tool which uses your Google account to store files online and can also be used to share files with other people and work on projects together. Being able to join in with a few others to work on a project and be able to take a break and have work still done is really useful.

Google Drive is compatible Windows Vista, XP, 7, 8
Mac, mavericks (10.9), Mountain Lion (10.8), Lion (10.7)
Linux can access Google Drive through the website but the software is not available on the system
android 4.0+ and iOS 7.0+ are able to use Google drive, android 2.3-3.2 and iOS 6.0+ Can only view the files
Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer run Google Drive but require Java script

Siri is brilliant for calendar management and time/task management, but underused, you can verbally manage your calendar/ tasks which, I personally find reduces the burden on my working memory and is more intuitive . The speed of which I can set myself a reminder by taking the phone out of my pocket rather than searching for a pen and paper which I inevitably end up losing anyway is astounding! I really like iOS accessibility. I definitely find low maintenance strategies with gainful upsides work well.

Evernote is the “most useful app. Good layout and easy to organise my notes and research. Able to synchronise with laptop. I can use a notebook for each of my modules. I find the ability to synchronise whatever I input on iPad with laptop. Excellent for storing notes which were made earlier, easy to find, no more searching through pages in books. Far superior to Notebook+ and Notebook. This app really met my needs.”

“When you watch videos that are not in your first language – if there are subtitles turn these into your chosen language to help explain the content.”

YouTube has closed captioning or subtitles on some videos and the video called “How to extract YouTube Subtitles (Interactive Transcript) in 2 minutes [HD]” illustrates some of the difficulties that occur with automatic captioning – A Frenchman speaking in English and when you view the subtitles by selecting the small list icon on the bottom right of the video player you will see that some of the words do not match what has been said but you can also translate the words into your chosen language. The results will be variable! In this video you will see how you can take the transcript and improve the results.